The Ramsey Show - App - Should I Take Money Out of Investments To Buy a House?

Episode Date: May 5, 2022

Dave Ramsey & George Kamel discuss: Cash-flowing grad school, Transitioning to a self-employed career, Whether or not to pay off debt during job transitions. Want a plan for your money? Find out where to start: https://bit.ly/3nInETX Listen to all The Ramsey Network podcasts: https://bit.ly/3GxiXm6

Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, it's the Ramsey Show, where debt is dumb, cash is king, and the paid-off home mortgage has taken the place of the BMW as the status symbol of choice. I'm Dave Ramsey, your host. Thank you for joining us, America. George Camel, Ramsey personality, is my co-host. He's also the host of the Entree Leadership Podcast, as well as the Fine Print. The first season of that podcast is online and available now and all anywhere. You listen to great Ramsey Networks podcasts, and it's pretty incredible.

Check it out. We're here to answer your questions about relationships, mental health, about your job, your career, about your money, your life. It's a free call at 888-825-5225. Nick is with us in New Haven, Connecticut. Hi, Nick. Welcome to The Ramsey Show. Hey, how are you, Dave?

Great. How can we help hey um i've been um watching your youtube videos for a little while now and i don't think i came across this question that anybody asked i currently own a condo in new haven which obviously has the standard property tax hlac and all that stuff but uh because the complex needs some exterior maintenance done, they've added a special assessment onto our monthly payment. So would you consider that part of the lump sum mortgage, keep it on as the mortgage equivalent and pay it out through the five years that the condo association has for the loan? Or would you consider that a type of consumer debt that I should pay that in that mix as well?

How much is it? Over the five years, it's about $7,000. So it's about $135 a month. Yeah. It doesn't matter. You need to get it paid off either way. You're either going to pay it off when you pay off the condo, or you're going to pay it off as baby. It's either baby step two or six, but you're going to get around to it.

You follow me? Mm-hmm. So there's not a – and it's probably no interest. It's probably just a straight assessment, correct? Yeah, the interest on the loan that the condo association took out is already factored into our monthly payment. So, I mean, if you pay it off, you don't get a break. No, they will let us pay it off either on the month-by-month,

or if I get a bonus at work or something, we can pay it off individually whenever. But they're not charging you interest, so it doesn't save you anything to pay it off early. No. Yeah, so as far as the interest you're being charged is zero. It's a simple $7,000 divided by five years yeah 60 months so 135 a month yeah so uh i like the cleanliness of just getting rid of what's your household income um i start actually start a new job on monday it'll be about 110 yeah i like the cleanliness of not having it there i don't try to like my mind i learned to

quit thinking like oh it's no interest so i'm gonna use this money and i i and instead it's just a stupid bill for me um because you're not gonna get rich because of either thing you do here okay but getting rid of it there's a simplification of your life a cleanliness to your life you make enough money i'm probably putting into that snowball i don't know what are you feeling george yeah i mean if you're in babysit for and beyond and you've got the cash i'm going to pay it off but if not i'm going to just make it part of my my debt payoff it doesn't feel like consumer debt he didn't go into debt for this so you can look at it as a budgetary item that's on top of

the mortgage. But I'm with Dave in that I'd rather not have it in my life and have the cash flow back every month if you have the cash to just get rid of it. You know, it gets paid one way or another. You sell the condo, you refinance the condo someday, you pay off the condo someday, or you pay it off now. You have to pay it regardless. It's going to get paid. It's not going away. So they've got, a you know special assessments a lien on the property so uh if you sell it it'll show up in a title search so um you know it's it's going to get paid but uh that's not the question so it's just a matter of when and it's only seven thousand dollars if it's seventy thousand i might let it lay over there baby 6, but it's just not that much.

Lee's in Baton Rouge. Hi, Lee. How are you? I'm doing good, Dave. How are you doing? Better than I deserve. What's up? Well, I'm 31 years old, married, and have two kids.

Self-employed. The Lord's really blessed my business over the last few years. I'm completely debt-free. I've rented for 13 years now straight and have moved 11 times in 13 years. So needless to say, me and my family, we're looking to either build or buy our first home and settle down. Of course, with me being self-employed, the job has really ramped up over the last three to four years, but it is varied because I am 100% commissioned. So my two questions that I've personally had is I've got enough cash to, I've got a couple hundred thousand dollars in my savings account. I have about $97,000 in mutual funds and about another $100,000 in personal investments that I personally invest in, take out, etc. with a $25,000 emergency fund. With looking at purchasing a home and, of course, studying my amortization schedules over the last year of looking at homes, I'm curious as to whether you would recommend the thought

process of taking some of the money out of my personal investments or mutual funds and pay cash up front for the home or not touch those. No do that definitely pay cash okay okay um pretty and so you would you would definitely recommend taking out then you're saying out of the mutual funds account to put that down towards the home it's not in a retirement account it's just a mutual fund right correct yeah what are your personal investments in? I have personal stocks where I invest day trade on the side of a little bit of cryptocurrency, et cetera. What's your household income? What are you making a year? Well, I'm a logistics broker, and it's really increased over the last three years. So two years ago, I brought in $125,000.

Last year was $325,000, and this year is on pace for between a half a million to $650,000. Wow. But as the supply chain crap calms down, that income is going to calm back down. Agreed? Yeah, and that's what I wanted to preface it all, of course, with that being the case. It's really been blessed, and I obviously believe in the Lord to keep his hand on the business. Yeah, but I'm under the illusion you're going to make six and a quarter the rest of your life. Correct.

I 100% am with you. Yeah. And if you don't have a mortgage payment, that changes the scenario as far as you being commissioned and worrying about what's going to happen this month. I mean, you've been working your tail off, and you're good at what you do, so you deserve every bit of this, and I'm really happy that you're prospering this way. Way to go, dude. Touchdown. But I'm not going to be under any illusion that I'm going to win the Super Bowl every year. Yeah.

You know, I think you'll still be in the game. You're a stud. You're going to do that. But, yeah, I'm going to use this as a windfall, as if you've got an inheritance or as if you've got a one-time bonus or whatever, a signing bonus, whatever, something like that. I'm going to create it like that and just pay cash for this house. And now I've got that piece of my life that is settled forever. That's very cool. Definitely paying cash, dude.

Definitely paying cash. This is The Ramsey Show. In an uncertain world, being a good steward of your money is more important than ever. While some circumstances can't be controlled, there are items within your budget you can take charge of, such as your health care costs. For nearly 40 years, Christian Health Care Ministries, or CHM, has provided a budget-friendly means of sharing for medical bills when our members need it. Learn more by visiting chministries.org budget. That's chministries.org slash budget. Christian Healthcare Ministries is a Ramsey-trusted provider. George Campbell, Ramsey Personality, is my co-host today as we talk about your life, your money, your relationships, and your work right here on The Ramsey Show.

We're glad you're here. Emmy is with us. Emmy is in Birmingham. Hi, Emmy. How are you? I'm fine. How are you doing? Better than I deserve.

What's up? Well, I'm calling because I have a question for you. We have just started your baby steps. We just got married two years ago and we both have started your course at some point and kind of got a little bit off track and we want to clean things up and get back on track. And I also in that time started a grad school program. I'm changing careers to be a teacher and I'm in the classroom at the same private school where I started out, but instead of an office job, I'm teaching. So I am going to have a summer job and use that money to help with my grad school tuition for the next year so I

don't take out another student loan. But my question is, would it be better to put that money toward our debt right now and cash flow the rest or should i continue to set that money aside like i'd planned um and hit our debt with everything else coming in i'm confused you're going to pay for grad school in cash with either of these two options yeah okay then what is the difference you've got you got you got debt and you're trying to pay off grad school and and you're going to have cash to pay for grad school, so no more debt. And the two options to do well are what then?

Either to cash flow throughout this next year and just use the money that comes in from my summer job to go ahead and pay off our debt right now? Or do I hold on to my summer money and use that instead of cash flowing through this next year? Then where does the cash flow money go? Just into a savings account just to pay off my semester each semester through the rest of the program. Okay. But you're sure you're going to cash flow the grad school no matter what yes either way we are we are not doing any more

debt okay all right well job one is no more debt so job one is grad school with no debt after that job two is get out of debt fast as you can okay so that would sound like that's put the summer job on the debt, doesn't it? Yes, that's what I was kind of leaning towards, but I wanted to get your blessing. No, you don't need my blessing, but I'm just trying to help you think through it. You know, the point is you can, out of your household income, pay grad school out of your pocket in the winter if you use the summer money on your current debt yes that's the fastest way yeah 60 percent yeah that moves you out of debt the fastest possible way yes that was what i was kind of thinking might be a smarter option to get us out quicker yeah the only thing is you just risk if there's a bump in one of your

a problem with one of y'all's income it could put you in a pinch on grad school. Right, that was what I was concerned about and was thinking about was setting it aside, but I also want to get that thing done. You think, it kind of sounds like from our conversation, though, you feel like your jobs are very stable. Yes, my husband's, it's the school that we went to, and we've both been there for years, and so we feel good about it. Okay. Yeah, I think we got a plan then. Yeah, that's simple. Good stuff.

Hey, that's very smart. That's a very smart way of looking at it and thinking about it. And, you know, the trick is they've made the shift. They flipped the switch. No more debt. It's not an option. Once you do that, then you start to come up with other ways of living and doing things. You get creative.

That's good. And we usually say investing in yourself is the best possible thing to do right now, and you can pay off the debt once you're graduating. But in this case, she knows she's going to have the money to cash flow it. Yep. So we're okay using the other money to pay it out in debt. How do you pronounce this? D-E-D?

Oh, my gosh. Okay. Deed? Dead? Deb. dead how do you pronounce this d-e-d oh my gosh okay dead deed dead deb deb oh it's a b okay that makes a whole lot more sense i've never seen that name i'm just i i was really struggling here i'm so thankful you're dead hi deb how are you deb not dead fantastic huge fan thanks for taking my call. Sure. What's up? Looking for some advice. My husband and I are in Baby Step 5, and we have a 12-year-old, and my 12-year-old and I just finished reading debt-free degree. He's on board. He kind of understands what we've all been going through

with the baby steps. And we have shared custody. So my son's father also lives in the same town, not too far away. We all get along. And we had all talked about starting his 529. And lo and behold, my uncle called me over Christmas and gifted us $60,000 towards my son's 529. Wow! That's incredible. Yeah. So I don't know if I have a dilemma or not. His father is not on the same financial program we are. He's more of the type of, he went to an Ivy League school. He came out of school with $90,000 debt. So I don't know. I'm hesitating to break the news to him. I would like for him to also save money for our son's future, but I don't want to micromanage this. I don't know if I'm thinking about it too hard, but what's my best way to break the news to his dad about this huge gift.

Well, you mentioned you guys have a good relationship. We do. Okay. How long have you been divorced? Seven years. Okay. If you said something like, Uncle gave our kid $60,000, but that doesn't relieve you or I from the obligation to cover the rest and continue to save, what would he say? He would probably agree with that. Okay. Then game over, right?

I would say so. Okay. You can't determine whether he actually goes and saves or not. If this takes away his motivation to save, you can't control that. Yeah. But you have an integrity issue to tell him number one but number two you're you're asking and you admitted that and so you know you're asking them how to couch that in a way but that does sound like you all have a very

healthy relationship congratulations because if a lot of exes said that to their other ex they'd get the finger right yeah you know so and i'm not talking about the pinky but i mean you know the the the idea of you you're not gonna tell me anything what my obligation is you can just talk to the judge about that but that's not how it sounds like you can say and go listen we've both agreed that we're going to add to our son's name uh you know, to Johnny's college fund. And the great news is that a lot of the pressure is off of both of us, but we need to continue to save because 60 is not enough. Right.

It's not enough, by the way. So you're not done, but a lot of the pressure is off. Yeah. And I think having this hard conversation, and it may go the total other way, and he's excited about it and goes, wow, the pressure is off, and he doesn't relieve us of our obligation, but man, does that help to have that money growing for the next six years until he's off to college.

Yeah, and just go, you know, it makes me nervous that I might let, you could do this, you could turn it back on yourself. It makes me nervous that I might let my foot off the gas and not save because this came in, and I know you won't. It's less accusatory that way. It's quite the encouragement rather than the other. And so, you know, I just want to let you know this, and both of us are going to stay on track. We're both going to keep saving because that's the kind of people we are. But, man, what a wonderful gift we got, little johnny's just in a lot better shape now

and yeah i think if you couch it that way unless this guy is unreasonable or your your connection has so many wounds that he can't hear clear encouraging statements uh then but it sounds like you guys could probably have that conversation and i definitely i definitely know you got to tell him so the question is just how to how to build the sentence or the narrative around it to where you're still both of you keep saving but remember this is good news in my book oh it's amazing it's amazing what a great uncle that's cool the proverbial rich uncle i want to be that uncle it's really cool. Herbie Old Rich Uncle. George Campbell Ramsey personality is my co-host today. Thank you for joining us, America, in the lobby of Ramsey Solutions.

On the debt-free stage, Dan and Heidi are with us. Hey, guys, how are you? We're fantastic. Cool. So you're walking around our lobby with T-shirts that say weird people. Yes. And we are. In our lobby, we-shirts that say weird people yes yes and we are in our lobby we

all understand what that means but if you walk through the mall with those shirts on you could get arrested right people keep their distance they do they're weird people they wear t-shirts all right so how much debt have you guys paid off 194 8. Love it. How long did this take? 27 months. Good for you. And your range of income during that time? We started out around $150,000 and ended about $200,000. Cool. What do y'all do for a living? I'm in sales. I do accounts payable and receivable for a local school district. Wonderful. So what kind of debt was this $195,000? Actually, it was all real estate, Dave. We had three homes. We had been out of debt other than the real estate for a couple years.

And we took financial peace at our church. And that got Heidi all fired up. She's like, we need to pay these mortgages off. Go, Heidi. Go, Heidi. Go. Wow. So that's what we did.

So there were three mortgages on there was actually four mortgages we sold one of the houses which that was kind of the hardest thing for me to do because i had bought this house years ago and it was a retirement plan i you know listened to real estate i wanted to do that kind of a retirement and uh so when we decided in the class to sell that that was how much did that house bring? We sold it for about $100,000 and I think we owed about $20,000. Okay, so $75,000 of the $195,000. Chunk with that.

The rest of it, your cash flow out? Yes. Okay, so you knocked them out and that's your house and everything. House and everything. So it's official. You're weird, people. You're weird.

So what's your home worth? Probably about $250,000. Cool. And what's the other real estate worth? Probably, what did we? Probably about $250,000. Cool. And what's the other real estate worth? Probably, what did we decide, about $250,000 probably between the other two homes. Yes. Somewhere in that range. So about a half million dollars in paid for real estate.

Right. Very nice. Very nice. So how much do you have in investments in your retirement and that kind of stuff? Before or after the new administration? I guess I'm asking about today. before or after the new administration? I guess I'm asking about today. No, we have about 500,000.

Okay. So your baby steps millionaires. We are. You did it. We're very close. Yay. Way to go, you guys. Thank you. I'm proud of you.

Well done. Okay, so the church is teaching Financial Peace University. You guys go in there, and Heidi goes, you're the salesman. I'm the numbers person. We're paying off these houses. I said, I'm all in. You're coming with me. Go sell something.

I'm in, and you're coming with me. That's right. That's what I told Sharon. We've been married 40 years. I said, if you leave, I'm going with you. Absolutely. Oh, man. Way to go, you guys. 40 years. I said, if you leave, I'm going with you. Absolutely. Oh, man. Way to go, you guys.

Thank you. I'm excited. Now, that busts into everything the culture tells you not to do. You're perpendicular. That's why we call it weird people. And that's why weird people around here is a compliment because normal is broke and in debt. And you're not either. You're millionaires with paid for real estate paid for

home um and so you you came you bucked right against the culture how did that feel when you first started doing it it was different go ahead well to me it was a little bit more on my normal side just because i'm the budgeter i'm the one that says we should spend this amount of money and dan was like no i've been single for a lot of years and i can spend whatever i want because it was only me but now i said now it's the both of us if you'll look beside you you will notice it's not only you absolutely uh yeah good how long y'all been married 10 years in january all right good good so now that you did it now that you busted through it the tough 27 months got rid of that property

made you cry a little bit when that one went away and uh uh but now you're free how's it feel awesome great such a weight lifted off it was worth it absolutely yeah every bit of it every nowhere nowhere to go but here from here but i mean you're baby step seven you're just gonna pile up money now you guys gonna buy more property you think we're looking about a beach house maybe a magic trick and that shell did not come from nashville i think he's been dreaming he has been dreaming this uh he's carrying that around this is a this is a thing right here good good for you i think you should it's a good idea very well done well you got you need to have a goal you need to have things you're aiming at and you know your enjoyment of the money that your outrageous generosity

uh these are the things that that make all of this worthwhile and uh and and you that you're outrageous generosity. These are the things that make all of this worthwhile. And you're on track to do all of that. So way to go. All right. Now, people are listening and they say, all right, how did you do this? What do you say the key is to getting out of debt? Mine's pretty simple. Spend more money or spend less money than what you're making.

That's a big, it's simple, but that's the deal. Yeah. Mine is stick to the budget that we set up. Or that I set up and he would make one or two changes and then I'd say, you've got to stick to it. And I did. You can change it, but now you're locked in, baby. Right, exactly.

That's the trick to get them locked in. Yeah, that's good. Very good. Way to go, you guys. Now it's habitual. We have the app and we just, that's good. Very good. Way to go, you guys. Way to go. Now it's habitual. We have the app, and every time we spend $2 on a soda, put it in there. It goes in the EveryDollar app, and then we know where it's going.

Heidi's watching. Yes, she is. Nothing's slipping by her. I like it. I like it. Hey, you've got to have a plan, and this is it, man. It's a system now. And, you know, those of us that are sales people uh we have

a tremendous ability to earn money uh but almost all and i'm one almost all of us that have that that uh that zest that ability to go make money selling uh also have that goes with that we have this mistaken idea that we can out earn our stupidity and so you need a heidi in in there going no here's the plan stay on the plan now you're locked on the plan we're staying on the plan and i had to do that to myself and and sharing with me of course years and years and years ago but i realized that that's what i was doing i was trying to out earn my stupidity yeah i did the same thing uh when i was we got married uh i was going to run the checkbook pay the bills but i'm the man of the house that's what he does and uh so but what i would do was if

if it was 12 and 85 cents it was 13 in the checkbook i just round up then i wouldn't have to worry about balancing i always knew i had more money in there than what what it said and uh she she really didn't go for that that's not how you her head. That's not how you do it, Dan. That's not how you do it. So she took over everything. I'm like, you've got to balance to the penny. So it works for us. She pays the bills and does the checkbook.

Well, way to go, you guys. We're very, very proud of you. Congratulations. We got a copy of the Baby Steps Millionaire book for you. Since you've hit that milestone, you can enjoy that. You should be in there. And you're yet another person, another couple that has pulled that off. And also a copy of Total Money Makeover for you to give away to someone.

Tell folks out there, I mean, you've been married 10 years. You guys are how old? 56. 56. Okay. So it's not too late you can do this in the last 10 years you guys have completely revolutionized your lives and in the last 27 months you have for sure yes you can do it you can do it whenever right exactly because a lot of the folks come on this

show are 30 years old or 27 years old or whatever but uh you know we had a lady on here the other day that was 70 something um that did our debt-free scream. And so, you know, it's just math. Right. And it works when you're 70, and it works when you're 27. You know, and so you can just do this. And you guys did it. I'm so proud of y'all.

Well done. Thank you. Very, very, very well done. All right. It's Dan and Heidi from Ohio. $195,000 paid off in 27 months, making $150,000 to $200,000. 100% debt-free. House, rentals, everything.

They are weird people. And Baby Steps Millionaires to boot. Count it down. Let's hear a debt-free scream. Three, two, one. We're debt-free! We're debt-free! Woo! Woo! Woo! Three, two, one. We're down free! This is how it's done!

Man, nothing beats the sound of freedom. I'll tell you that. Well, they are a true example of the two ends, the nerd and the free spirit, that love each other so much that they decide to work together to accomplish goals together. And they gave up. Each of them gave up pieces of things to get to where they were going. That's a beautiful sacrifice.

Well done. Very well done. Over $14 million paid off in debt-free screams so far this year. Wow. Wow. This is The Ramsey Show. Our scripture of the day, Psalm 9419, When anxiety was great within me, your consolation brought me joy. Mark Twain said, A man cannot be comfortable without his own approval.

That's pretty strong. That'll do. George Campbell, Ramsey Personality, is my co-host today. TJ is with us in Lima, Ohio. Hi, TJ. How are you? Good. Thanks, Dave and George.

Thanks for taking my call. Sure. What's up? Yeah, so I got a question about whether or not I should pay off the remainder of my car this month or wait until next month. So I'll give you the situation in brief. First, I want to thank you guys. When I started this process about 14 months ago, I was making $45,000 a year. Within two months, I started making $60,000 a year. And just today, I just

got an offer to make $100,000 starting next month. Good for you. Yeah. Good for you, man. That's killer. Yeah, I'm really excited. I'm a little shaky, to be honest with you. I paid off $28,000 in the last 12 months, and this week I'll be able to have the funds to pay the remainder of the car off, which is $2,638. Now, the question that I have is, if I pay off the car this month, I'll be making next month a little tight financially until I get my first paycheck at my new job. So the question boils down to, do I go ahead and pay the car off,

or is it okay to dip into the emergency fund as a gap bill? Now, I'm kind of conservative, so I think I should pay off the majority of it and then pay the remainder after I've secured that first paycheck, and my wife thinks it's okay to dip into that emergency fund, so I'd like to hear your thoughts what's your car payment it is 408 dollars and 24 cents a month but like i said how much are you having your emergency fund a thousand dollars okay just making sure you're doing this right because you're acting like there's a lot of money and on top of that you'll be able to pay off the car but you'll have a thousand dollars to your name for a short period of time. Correct.

So I don't understand why you're going to miss a paycheck changing jobs. Well, I don't anticipate that I will, but, you know, there might be, like, this job right now pays weekly, and I don't know if the next job will pay biweekly or semi-monthly, whatever. But I didn't know if I should pause just as a security blanket or just go forth and assume my best, I guess. Does your wife work outside the home? No, my wife is a stay-at-home mom with our two little girls, and she actually watches two kids to help with income as well. And what does she make doing that?

Right at $2,000 a month. Mostly she uses her income to pay for food, household supplies, things of that nature, and we're really using my income to tackle large bills like the mortgage, the car payment, the debts, and then also attack the debt pretty heavily. Gotcha. So your conservative nature is what's making you assume that you're going to dip into the emergency fund. We don't really know that you're going to have to

because you really don't know how the new place is structured yet. Correct. So let's find that information before we make the decision. Okay. So, you know, let's pretend there's no change. That you go from one paycheck to another. Then you would have just paid off the car now, right? Right.

But let's pretend there's a $2,000 gap between the time you get paid and the changeover, and you only have $1,000. Well, then having paid off the car would have been silly because your kid's going to be hungry. Right. So we need to work from facts on this as to what's really going on. But I think that's what's going to happen i mean a normal transition would be you you we we pay in america generally speaking uh for the work that is completed in other words you work and you get paid at the end of the work time you work and then you get paid at the end of work time and so if you work and you

get your final paycheck and the next week you go to work at the other place and it's two weeks and you get a paycheck you're not going to miss a check. You're going to miss a weekly hit, but you're going to have two weeks of pay. If you can sit down and look at that and go, well, with my wife, with keeping the kids with that income, we're easy, it's no problem. I think that's probably what's going to happen unless there's a start date that's pushed out on the new place after you leave the old place. Now, you could leave a gap in the middle there, right?

Right. But, I mean, I think we need to figure out exactly where you are. You should ask the employer, hey, when is that first check going to come in for planning purposes? And we plan from that. But you're not going to have a car payment either, so you're going to need less money once the car is paid off. Well, it's only a $400 swing, so it's not a $2,600 swing. It's a $2,200 swing. And we've got $2,000 coming in from her, $1,000 sitting in the account.

I think you're going to be okay, but I don't want your kid to be hungry. But I also don't want you making decisions that are just based on the fact that, oh, I'm kind of conservative. No, we'll get the car paid off. I don't care if you're conservative or not. But let your conservative cautious turn into wisdom and say, we're going to gather this information from the new employer, match it with the old employer pay, and here's the gap or there is no gap, and then you can make your decision. And we're going to live like we did not get a raise

because we have an emergency fund to build up as soon as this debt's paid off. Yeah, just keep plowing on through. Keep working your baby steps for sure. So well done. Jenna's with us in Wisconsin. Hi, Jenna. How are you? Hey, good.

How are you? Better than I deserve. How can we help? Hey, I was just curious. Is it wise for my husband to quit his public work job in order to continue an already in business working cabinet making company, especially with concern for the future and market and the current economy cost yes he should go be self-employed i i should preface this by saying we are on bb's at number two so far we have paid off 210 000

with 55 left to go way to go that's awesome i'm assuming he's going to make more though you're assuming he's going to make less which one of us is right well i think i'm there's security and with the public works job as far as it no there's not 47 no there's not some goop over there has to make payroll security in the workplace is mythology. What's he make at his current job? So his current job in the public works job, he makes $47,000 a year. What did he make last year on the cabinets? And then last year his net profit was $40,000.

But that wasn't full-time. Yeah, that was just part-time. That was part-time. So he's going to do better if he just increases his time spent on the cabinet business. Correct. It sounds like he's not scared of work either. So I feel pretty good about security of him being self-employed. Sure, yeah.

And the other thing is that I was trying to, you know, for the future, like this fall, if all of the interest rates go up, I guess I was just kind of nervous that way. He's going to double his income. Yeah. He's going to double his income. Yeah. He's going to double his income. He can make $100,000 next year. Sure. I mean, we do have $40,000 of fees for him in Lumber City in our garage because of orders.

So, yes, I don't doubt that. Yeah. I guess, yeah. I think he can clear six figures with this new business and get you guys out of debt even faster. Sure. Yeah. So, Jenna, we're big believers in self-employment

when you've got a real gig going. This guy's got a real gig going. He does. And what I don't want you to do is I don't want you to confuse. I don't want you to say, I'm willing for my husband to make half as much working for the city as he can make working on his own and call that security. That's not security. Now, the city's probably not going to go broke.

They're probably going to keep paying him. They may not lay everybody off, but they might, too. They have before. It wouldn't be the first time that the city had a layoff. And so, you know, but don't make half as much as you can make in the marketplace and call that security just because somebody else is writing your paycheck. His ability to get up, leave the cave, and kill something and drag it home has been proven. That's true.

He's a smart guy, and he's a hard worker. Now, I do want you guys to – I want to coach you up. I'm going to send you a copy of the book Entree Leadership because I think this guy's really good at making cabinets. His next step is to learn how to run a business. It's a different skill than making cabinets. And if you're going to be bringing in a net profit of $100,000 a year, you've got to run a business.

And so he needs to get into that. I'll send you a copy of our book, How We Run Hours. It's called Entree Leadership. Thank you for calling in. George, good show. Good stuff. Thanks, Dave. That puts us out of the Ramsey Show in the books. We'll be back with you before you know it. In the meantime, remember, there's ultimately only one way to financial peace, and that's to walk daily with the Prince of Peace, Christ Jesus. Hey, it's Rachel Cruz, co-host on The Ramsey Show. If you want to do your debt-free scream live on the show, visit ramsaysolutions.com slash debt-free scream.

We'd love for you to come to Nashville and tell Dave your story. That's ramsaysolutions.com slash debt-free scream.